What I'd be interested in and what no industry news site has even thought about while posting press releases: why did Mr. Morhaime step down? It seems that he's been doing a great job and isn't in retirement age just yet.

Over the last six months, it looks like a full internal civil war between Activision and its studios, with Netease being some sort of enabler. Netease first makes a lot of money releasing Blizzard (not Activision) games in China. Then Netease gives $100M to Bungie. At the same time rumors circulate about Activision wanting Blizzard to do more mobile. Blizzard then very obviously reskins a Netease game into Diablo Immortal, which gets booed off stage, after being presented with arguments as if focus testing did not exist. Meanwhile Bungie is working on splitting off from Activision, courtesy of having recently received some third party funding that essentially is money from Blizzard IPs by way of Netease. When rattling off facts makes you sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist who invents two thirds of what he just wrote, you had a bad six months.

Over the last six years, Blizzard games were shrinking in scope. Project Titan was cut back into yet another teamshooter with lootbox galore. HotS competing in a segment defined by a free mod made by hobbyists and practically on the same scope. Hearthstone is a card game like the one found in Witcher 3, minus the Witcher 3 part. Activision crowbaring their red dot game onto the platform. Nostalgia aside, it is pretty grim, but World of Warcraft covers up a lot.

Just a guess, Mike Morhaime probably asked himself two questions. Can I really do something about this madness that evolves on two timescales at the same time and does my income group have a minimum required retirement age. I dare say the answer to the second question is 'no', thereby creating matching answers.